Gender Roles in Chika Unigwe’s The Phoenix

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Copyright © IAARR, 2007-2016: www.afrrevjo.net Indexed African Journals Online: www.ajol.info

An International Multi-disciplinary Journal, Ethiopia

Vol. 10(2), Serial No.41, April, 2016: 295-306

ISSN 1994-9057 (Print) ISSN 2070-0083 (Online)

Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/afrrev.v10i2.20

Gender Roles in Chika Unigwe’s The Phoenix

Akani, Julius Nsirim

Department of English Studies

University of Port Harcourt

Mobile Phone: +2348038746350

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper examines gender roles in Chika Unigwe’s The Phoenix (2007). In

examining these gender roles, the paper focuses on the roles of both female and male

genders in the novel in order to tease out issues that border on the marriage institution

and gender complementarity in a multicultural setting. As we have attempted to show

through our analyses, those issues of gender roles and gender relations that re-echo in

Unigwe’s novel need to be given enough critical attention. In other words, the need to

highlight these issues is what motivates this study. The paper establishes that women

are becoming more uncomfortable with the natural roles matrimony allots them. This

has not helped issues, in terms of harmonious family relations. Finally, there is an

urgent need to incorporate into national discourse issues raised by Unigwe in her novel

on gender roles and gender relations as they concern Nigerians in the home nation or

their host nations in this era of globalization.

Key words: Gender roles, gender relations, novelist, Globalization.

Introduction

Subjects of authority, class, gender, and race in literature are, in most cases, so

inextricably intertwined that we need to understand all to understand one, hence the

http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/afrrev.v10i2.20

mailto:[email protected]

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need to think inclusively (Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology 70). Now, gender is

derived from the Latin word genns, meaning kind. Most Indo-European Languages,

namely German, Russian and Latin, always use three genders: masculine, feminine,

and neuter. This is the reason why the Germans, for example, have der Mann for the

man and die Frau for the woman. For the girl (neuter), the Germans say das Madchen.

In some other languages, like French, Italian, and Spanish we have only two genders.

Even though gender is present in every language, it may not be correct to conclude that

it is universal. In literature, as it is in this paper, the concern is with gender roles/

relations, equity and inequality, when writing on or talking about gender. By these

emphasis is laid on the pattern of behaviour and expectation that are considered

appropriate or inappropriate in the society, in terms of speaking/writing about either

the male or female sex. It is at this point that the subject of gender begins to link up

with feminist criticism/study. Ian Buchanan writes that “the notion of gender was used

in Second Wave feminism to separate individual attitudes and actions from

physiology” (198). According to him, this is so as to debilitate the “biological

determinist thesis” that tends to suggest that cultural attitudes reflect a particular nature

of the body. Buchanan argues along the same line with Simone de Beauvoir who has

written that “gender is an identity one adopts or creates” (qtd in Buchanan 198).

Invariably, the question is: who decides what is expected for either the male or female

gender in the society? To answer this question, a lot, of course, depends on whether a

given society is patriarchal or matriarchal. The establishment of this fact usually leads

literary theorists to begin to “encourage the bridging [of] the gender gap between men

and women” (Nnolim 54). It must be stated that sex cannot be used interchangeably

with gender. For purposes of clarification, sex is biological while gender is ideological.

Gender is more about ideas that humans create for themselves.

Feminist novels react to female subjugation and maltreatment in marriage and

ultimately project female assertion. And Feminist critics have been trying to

reconstitute the manner we read literature so as to do justice to female points of views,

interest, worth and value (Abrams 95). In terms of the origin of Feminist Criticism,

critics will always draw our attention to Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the

Right of Woman (1792) and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929).

Wollstonecraft’s book lends substantial support to literary critics when they are tracing

the origin of feminism. Literary critics/theorists trace the origin of feminism to the 16th

century, although Josephine Donovan, a feminist theorist, contends that there was an

earlier feminist wave in the 15th century (Chioma Opara 12). As has been stated,

feminism “sought to resolve issues like rape, sexual harassment and violence against

women” (Opara 12-13). These are issues that have always been there since the origin

of man. The rise of feminist movements/campaigns in Africa can be traced more to

protests on issues of violence against women. The Lagos women’s protest of 1909 was

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against the introduction of water rate; the Aba Women’s Riot of 1929 was basically a

fight against the colonial authority, these women rejected the idea of being counted

because they give birth to children; and the Abeokwuta women’s protest against

colonial taxation in 1949 completed the third leg of the tripod, in terms of the struggle

to eliminate violence against women in Africa (Opara 14). In recent times there have

been other protests like the ones mentioned above.

It is pertinent to note that although the word feminism has its roots in the Latin

word femina (which means woman) it did not make it to the lexicon of feminist critics

and writers until the late 1880s. The most preferred terms/phrase before the term

feminist became popular has been “women’s rights” (Buchanan 166).

It has become the norm now to divide the history of feminism into three phases

namely, First, Second, and Third Wave. In all the phases what usually emerges is “the

signalling of a different era in the struggle to attain equality between sexes” (Buchanan

166). We are of the view that it is worth mentioning here that the long First Wave of

feminism was used to fight so many wars against several injustices meted on women

in the area of restriction, in terms of ownership of property, lack of protection against

sexual violence and discrimination in the work place. Immediately suffrage was

granted, campaign for women’s rights began to wane and remained quiet until the late

1950. The early 1960s saw the rise of Second Wave feminism, reignited by the

publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963). Some critical theorists

believe that the Second Wave feminism may have started before the early 1960s, with

the publication of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) in France (Abrams

93). With other women encouraged to take up the campaign against gender inequalities,

the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed in 1966. The Second Wave

of feminism came to an end in the early 1980s but not without pushing for the

ratification of an Equal Right Amendment to the constitution of the US. Again, we saw

the end of an era because of perceived success. Third Wave feminism can be linked to

the publication of Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War against Woman

(1991). At this point feminist scholars began to point out that feminists did not take

certain issues like race and class into consideration. This gave rise to the emergence of

different types of feminism. So we now have African feminism as against the much

more radical brand of feminism advocated by American feminist scholars. This, of

course, has led to a situation where feminist theoretical and critical writings continue

to expand yearly in volume and range.

Although Unigwe’s The Phoenix (2007) has not received enough critical

attention, in terms of published critical works, one can still find some comments on the

blurb, Wikipedia, and in Chibueze Orie’s book. Chris Abani, according to comments

on the blurb, is interested in the “moral urgency” with which Unigwe treats issues in

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The Phoenix, and her “understanding of human condition” as depicted in the novel

(n.pag.). Still on the blurb, we read that Unigwe is only interested in the novel’s

examination of “how tragic loss can totally consume a human being” (n.pag.). Also, as

contained in the blurb, Unigwe’s novel:

Tells the story of a young Nigerian woman married to a Belgian who

is forced to confront two tragedies in succession: the accidental death

of her young son, and the discovery that she has cancer. The story itself

is related in the form of an internal monologue as she journeys by train

from her home to the clinic through a hostile winter landscape. (n.pag.)

The portion cited from the blurb, above, makes it clear that the novel is about the

experiences of a Nigerian who lives abroad. In fact, other part of this comments state

clearly that the novel “makes us see what it means to be” a Nigerian in “an unfriendly

climate” in some European country (n.pag.). Implicit in the quotation above is the fact

that the novel is narrated by a narrator who uses the “internal monologue” technique.

According to comments posted on Wikipedia by Daria Tunca of Universite dé

Liege, “some of the subjects examined in her [Unigwe’s] work are physical and mental

illness, Immigration to Belgium, and prostitution” (n.pag.). It is important to note that

this study focuses on the issues of immigration and prostitution. It is in the light of this

that these comments come close to what the study will examine in a broader way.

Orie, in his Who is a Woman Being? 21st Century Nigerian Female Debut

Novels, writes that Unigwe’s

The Phoenix is chillingly and surreally curious in its reporting of an

existential torture, of life of agony, of the living–dead, of insuperable

reminiscence of unwanted, dreaded, not-of-age death.

… the reader encounters a one who interiorizes one’s odyssey and

writes one’s epitaph having lost all hope of living while one is living,

or rather existing. (89)

Orie’s argument, as seen in the quotation above, is that Unigwe’s novel negates the

unanimously held belief that literature is primarily meant to teach and amuse. There is

nothing amusing or entertaining about Unigwe’s novel as it falls under some novels

that Orie classifies as being filled with stories that are “excruciatingly painful, as they

are lachrymose” (89). Orie does not just stop at the painful feelings that the protagonist-

narrator expresses because of her sick son, who later died of course. He goes ahead to

write in his book that:

She sadly finds Belgian socio-cultural, political, religious and

economic conditions awkward and hostile to her person and

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background. She manages to stay but only to realize that it is her

shadow that lives or pretends to live there. (92)

It is obvious from the comments above that no critic can possibly miss the main issue

in Unigwe’s The Phoenix: the hostile condition that some Nigerians live in foreign

countries. In Unigwe’s novel, this bitter diasporic experience is conspicuous, one

cannot possibly miss it. According to Orie, loneliness is another disease, like cancer

and “things are simply strange” over there in Belgium where Oge lives (93).

Unigwe’s The Phoenix: An Overview

Chika Unigwe’s The Phoenix is a novel that focuses on the existence of torture, a life

of agony, the living dead and the full effects of untimely death on the bereaved ones.

The novel records how Oge, the protagonist-narrator, feels after the tragic loss of her

son, Jordi Eze Wouters.

In terms of structure, the novel is divided into eleven (11) chapters. The writer

does not mark out the novel by denoting the chapters with proper title headings and

chapter numbers, but one cannot fail to observe the eleven different sections/chapters

as they are clearly indicated in the novel. The first chapter of the novel introduces the

readers to Oge, in a train. She is embarking on a journey to the hospital where she is

eventually diagnosed with cancer (22). This chapter begins with a one-word sentence:

Damascus. And she refers to that fearful journey to the hospital as a “Damascus trip.”

This Damascus trip helps in revealing that the protagonist is not only a mother who

loses her son, it also reveals that she is faced with a potentially terminal disease. She is

likely going to die, like her son. Through discussion between Oge and other characters

in the train, we learn of the ignorance of the Europeans who think that Africa is

beautiful but poor. Contrary to their belief that Europe is a lot better than Africa, Oge

knows that the house she shares with her husband in Belgium, Europe, is only as big

as her father’s guest house back home in Enugu, Nigeria

Chapter two reveals more about this woman’s bravery and courage after the

doctor drops “the word” about her cancer status. The information she gets may have

sent a chill from the tip of her toe to the roots of her hair but she is determined to stay

alive and mourn the death of the lovely son that she has already lost to the cold hands

of death.

In chapter three, we read of the queer system of giving birth and mothering in

Europe, or what Oge calls Western curse. The new system in Europe, France in

particular, is for women to give birth “under X” thereby producing children who are

“floating, rootless, with nowhere for their tentacles to grasp” (37). In Africa, the reverse

is the case, as women are always ready to take care of children, such that “when one

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mother is tired another takes over.” In fact, there were several pairs of eyes watching

each child in Africa.

Chapter four focuses specifically on how a character known as Angel is

cremated after her death. Her mother and others around her believe that” it was AIDS

that killed her” (61). Angel’s death makes Oge to recall how her own son is cremated

after he died. The strange reaction of Gunter, her husband, after he learns of her

pregnancy is one of the major issues that are raised in chapter five. Oge’s husband

never really wanted to have a child with Oge as shown by his action. He quickly

cremates the boy’s body after he was confirmed dead without informing his wife. She

is left to imagine what was in the urn in the Vitrine in the sitting room. The urn, of

course, had the dead boy’s ashes. The narrative continues to dwell on the urn and what

is in the urn in chapter six.

The narrator, who also doubles as the protagonist, focuses on issues of her

Christian faith in chapter seven. She believes that her dead son will one day walk back

to her alive by virtue of some “miracling” (113). She always speaks of the boy in the

present while her husband talked about the boy in the past: “Jordi was a beautiful baby”

(126). And this made Oge to hate her husband the more, as we read in chapter eight.

On the first Christmas morning, after she learns of how cancer is eating her up, she

discovers that the hatred has still not abated (130). Emphasis shifts to the visit of Oge’s

mother to Belgium in chapter nine. After arguing for days (and weeks) about the

impropriety of his mother -in-law’s visit, Oge’s husband finally caves in. At least her

coming would help “coax Oge into accepting” that Jordi is dead.

Finally, the story reaches its end in the last two chapters with Oge’s mother

making her (Oge) understand that the boy’s death does not signify the end of her own

life. At least she has the cancer battle ahead of her, she accepts her fate. The internet

becomes her refuge as she starts searching for information about cancer. This is the

first major step she takes in her fight against the dreaded disease. In this brief overview

of Unigwe’s The Phoenix the main issue remains the accentuation of the hostile

condition Nigerians in an alien host nation face. Loneliness, as hinted earlier in this

study, is a kind of disease, like cancer. However, it is obvious that Oge’s role in the

novel, as against that of her husband, is well worth the consideration we shall give it in

this paper. Like the phoenix, Oge’s life is indeed filled with amazing stories. The

phoenix, an amazingly large bird of a timeworn fable, is believed to have burned itself

after it reached 500years of age. It later arose from its own ashes and whenever it is

mentioned in literature, the symbol of death and resurrection is evoked in the mind of

the student of literature. The death of Oge’s son and news of her diagnosis did not

overshadow the fact that Unigwe presents her as a courageous woman in the novel.

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Gender Roles in The Phoenix

Critical theorists have defined gender roles as actions, prospects, and demeanour that

are believed to be suitable in a particular situation in human societies for the members

of either the female or male gender/sex. Gender role raises our awareness as to the

degree of affiliation to masculinity or femininity. This perhaps explains why male

characters are presented in a more positive light than female characters in male-

authored novels. But with the rise of feminist criticism and feminist oriented novels,

especially those written by women, female characters are made to play more positive

roles. Again, this explains the need for a reassessment of gender roles in contemporary

Nigerian novels, written by women/a woman. This will be done in a way that the main

issue in the novel will be analyzed, so as to place in perspective gender roles in the

novel under study. The main issue in Unigwe’s novel is the bitter diasporic experiences

Nigerians in diaspora face out there, especially in Belgium.

The roles played by Gunter in The Phoenix are not in any way complementary

to those of his wife, Oge. The roles played by females and males in matrimony are

supposed to be complementary. But this is not what we read in the novel under study

here. The main quality of being a husband is husbandhood which entails that the

husband as the head of the family must love his wife. In our analysis, this is not what

we discover in the relationship between Gunter and Oge. Gunter does not provide his

shoulders for Oge to lean on as she grieves over the death of their son, Jordi. This, in a

way goes ahead to show that Gunter is incompetent in playing the role of a husband.

The thrust of this section is to examine the roles Oge, a woman and wife, plays

in

The Phoenix as against those of her husband Gunter. With Oge, Unigwe presents her

readers with a female character that cannot be seen as the weaker sex. Oge is strong.

Before and after

Dr. Suikerbuik informs her that “the lumps we found were cancerous” (22), that she

has been diagnosed with cancer, she is already determined to be strong. Oge has

realized that there will be series of difficult situations against her, and she recognizes

the “marks,” the “two lines” on her face as “marks of pain” (22 -23). Unigwe presents

Oge as a courageous woman. Though we read that she is diagnosed of cancer, we do

not see her break down. She seems determined to live, without much support from her

husband, the man of the house. She sees everything that is happening, especially when

the doctor informs her that she has been diagnosed of cancer, as a dream. “Maybe this

is just a bad dream [… the type] you would wake up from… and your life would go

on” (24). She decides to banish the word cancer from her head because of her

determination to live (25). She wants to make the doctor understand that she “cannot

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have cancer because it is not an African disease!” (26) Oge believes that “cancer puts

one in a war situation and the only way to face it is to battle it” (28). It seems Unigwe

deliberately creates a woman, Oge, to do that battle, instead of a man like Oge’s

husband, Gunter.

In the novel it is Oge who shows more love and care to Jordi, their only son.

That she is always thinking of the boy’s proper supervision by his school teachers,

conjures up an image of a courageous woman instead of that of a weaker vessel. Oge

wants to start a campaign that will raise issues of proper supervision of school children,

but “Gunter did not want to know” (30), and he did not care enough for the boy. There

is a reversal of role here. It is obvious that Unigwe presents her readers with a story

that is totally devoid of any assumption that is based on superiority or inferiority

complex. The issue of “the supremacy of man over the woman” is laid to rest in

Unigwe’s The Phoenix. There is not much about this supremacy in the way Oge relates

with Gunter. As hinted earlier, Oge takes care of certain situations that ought to be

taken care of by Gunter in male-authored novels. Oge does everything possible to

honour the memory of Jordi. Ample example can be found in the novel about how she

takes care to buy the type of Christmas tree that Jordi would have loved to have in the

house. Even when she places the tree in the living room, she knew “that was the way

Jordi liked it” (33). She resigns to wondering why “Gunter would complain again about

how high the star (placed on the tree) was… he complained too much these days,

anyway. The only important thing was what Jordi wanted” (33). Only what Jordi

wanted matters to Oge. There is no gainsaying on the role a man plays as the head of

the family, what should not be encouraged is the relegation of the female gender to the

background. Unigwe seems to be against this and it is shown clearly in her novel. It is

Oge that makes sure that Jordi is given “the Christmas of his dreams. Every child had

a right to that” (33). Make a note of the fact that Gunter should be the one playing the

role Oge plays in the novel. He should be the one to provide what Jordi wants. No.

Unigwe would have none of that. For Unigwe, a woman can play that role too. Women

can play the game. Gunter seems to be interested in keeping away the memory of Jordi.

He hurriedly burnt the remains of Jordi immediately the doctor confirms the baby dead.

In his desperate attempt to stop Oge from bothering him with Jordi’s memory, he finally

takes her to “the oak vitrine: to show her the remains of Jordi in the “transparent urn”

(129). Events leading to Jordi’s birth and death at the age of five all point to one

direction (99). Gunter is never interested in having a baby in the first place. His first

reaction when Oge informs him that she is expecting a baby is to make her understand

that he “had not even known we were trying for a baby” (87). Gunter would later tell

Oge “that he had not felt ready to be a father.” (88) He questions Oge because she

“conceived Jordi” (87). In fact, he asks: “were you not on the pill?” (88) One would

have expected him to show much concern about having children (not just a child).

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Instead, it is the wife that shows interest in having children as an African wife of a

European husband.

The refusal of Gunter to approve of the things Oge did to honour the memory

of their late son may not be unconnected to the fact that Jordi is dead. Unigwe, it seems,

only wants to show how it is possible for the male and female sex to switch roles:

“Gunter would tell you it was unnecessary (because) he did not love Jordi with a

mother’s love” (35). In fact, he did not show enough of a father’s love, as the novel

reveals. Going further, in terms of the courage and bravery exhibited by Oge, Unigwe

writes that she (Oge) comes from a lineage of assertive, loving and caring women:

“where you come from a child has many mothers. When one mother is tired, another

takes over” (37). One cannot possibly miss the point here; it is conspicuous: This is

another way of saying that women care for children more than men. This could also be

another way of stating that Oge’s ability to play her role effectively as a mother is

traceable to her roots, where she comes from in Africa. The mutual love, respect and

understanding that exist back home where she comes from help to bring about peace in

matrimonial homes. The lack of gender complementarily seen in The Phoenix cannot

be unconnected to the absence of mutual love, respect and understanding in the family

where he comes from in Europe, even though this is not stated clearly in the novel.

Back home, in Enugu, where Oge comes from, “you were never lonely” but “loneliness

has become [a] way of life in Brussels” (74). Back home in Enugu, family members

always visited freely, but in Belgium “every guest was expected, every visit planned

with military precision” and Oge finds it difficult to get used to this culture of her

husband’s people (74).

The irony of all that is written in The Phoenix is that “Gunter was built like a

wrestler” (46). He is so strong, yet he does not act strong. He does not protect his wife

and child. Oge does more in the novel to show she is the one that is ever protective of

both husband and child. It is as if she is the man of the house. Well, there can be a

woman of the house too, as Unigwe has shown. One cannot pretend not to know that

Unigwe writes from her background as an African female writer. There is a belief in

the African continent that Africa is maternal (Ousmane Sembene 124). It is common

among Africans to show a special love towards our mothers. The African man is very

mother-oriented; he does not only love his mother he swears by his mother. Apart from

the aforementioned, one more thing is sure, every man loves a woman. We love our

wives, daughters and mothers. Notwithstanding attempts to subjugate the woman, more

than 50 percent of the African population is female. There is actually no need for

women oppression and female subordination, as we read in earlier African novels,

especially male-authored novel like Achebe’s Things Fall apart and Arrow of God.

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This is not an attempt to give excuses for Gunter’s roles. He is not African, as

the novel shows, but the role of husbandhood demands that the man should love the

wife. In Africa, men are not easily overtaken by grief and difficult situation, the man is

not supposed to show emotion like the woman will do yet this should not be used as an

excuse by men in any part of the world for why they should fail in playing the role

matrimony assigns them. Gunter did not only fail to complement Oge, he also fails to

learn from her. Had they worked together in the novel as husbands and wives do, he

would have learnt a few things indirectly from her. This would have taught him about

humanity and in a way Africanize him to some extent.

This study observes that Oge does more to accommodate Gunter. Things are

done differently in Unigwe’s novel. In order to accommodate Gunter, Oge hid her soup

spices in plastic boxes. Yet Gunter “complained that it was hard to get rid of the smell

of Igbo Soup. He said the smell stayed in the house…” (71). He did not like this. He

could do nothing to accommodate his wife’s preferences. On the other hand, Oge does

everything possible “to find favourites among food which did not annoy (her) husband.

Potatoes and bread. Pasta and Cheese” (71). She tries to please him by learning how to

prepare foreign delicacies. She buys “cookbooks and read them… [she] bought

vegetable with names you could hardly pronounce” (72). It beats one’s imagination to

how her husband will have nothing to do with “the smell of Igbo soup,” whereas on the

other hand she “did not want to drive him away” (71). She makes effort to grapple with

“stoofvlees, Chicory rolled in ham and cheese. Macaroni… Aubergines…with a

concoction of shrimps and tuna” (72). Günter detests Oge’s “spices” but Oge’s makes

effort to appreciate his “concoction.” Make a note of the fact that Gunter does all these

at a time he is expected to protect his wife from depression. At a time when Oge is

feeling depressed, Gunter still goes ahead to show his displeasure at her “spices”, mere

spices.

Unigwe’s novel shows that the marginalization or thingification of women and

the subsequent female subjugation that follow marginalization are now being relegated

to the background. The stereotypical portrayal of women as silent, passive and docile

beings is no longer the order of the day. There is a new perspective in the way women

are portrayed by writers, especially female writers. Earlier, female writers like Flora

Nwapa and Buchi Emecheta even try to portray women as docile beings. To make the

matter more complicated, they create female characters like mothers-in-law that

maltreat fellow women.

Finally, Unigwe’s success in her attempt to swap male gender roles for female

gender roles, vice versa, lies in her ability to create the character of Oge. Through Oge

we learn that Gunter does not seem to have played the role fatherhood allocates him

appropriately. The ability of being a father is what we refer to as fatherhood in this

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work. And playing this role (of fatherhood) is a role that is exclusively reserved for

males. On the other hand, motherhood is the ability of being a mother; females play

this role, as it is exclusively reserved for them. As made obvious in Unigwe’s The

Phonenix, Gunter fails to play his role effectively and by extension did not complement

his wife adequately in the novel. Gunter’s inability to play his role makes the

proposition of peaceful matrimony impossible. We cannot overstress the importance of

gender roles in marital affairs. Gender roles are complementary even though they are

different, as we have already hinted. What is actually stressed in this work is that none

of these roles (of fatherhood or motherhood) should be overlooked in matrimony.

Unigwe’s novel also tends to suggest that she is in support of African feminism. She

makes Oge to feel like a Nigerian whereas Günter feels like Europeans. But through

Chief (Dr.) Angus Ebube Nti, Oge’s father, Unigwe makes it clear that “the grief of

losing a child was absolute” (141). It is not a coincidence that an African, Doc, is the

one that makes this comment in the novel.

Conclusion

In conclusion, one can write that in Unigwe’s The Phoenix, gender roles are

highlighted, with emphasis on the roles Oge, a woman and wife, plays in the novel,

when compared to those of Gunter, a man and husband. It was revealed that the author

of the novel has presented her readers with a female character they cannot comfortably

refer to as a weaker sex. When Oge is diagnosed with cancer, we are not informed of

what her husband does to encourage and comfort her. But we are told she is already

determined to remain strong. She is presented as a strong and courageous woman all

through the novel, as our analysis showed.

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Print.

Adeyemo, Tundun. “Reflections: Musings of an Immigrant.” Tell May 5, 2014: 7.

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Gender Roles in Chika Unigwe’s The Phoenix